Wayland picks up Spartan Games via Warcradle Studios

As will be common knowledge now, the Spartan Games IPs have been picked up in their entirety by Wayland Games via their Warcradle moniker.

This is a Very Good Thing.

Why? Aren't Wayland a horrible online store who give big discounts and fail to fulfil delivery promises? Haven't they ruined WWX?

Well, no, I don't think either of those things is true. Wayland are, of course, a pretty big online supplier in Europe, but the feedback you get on what they're like is mixed and tends to be anecdotal. Have people had some horrible experiences with them? Yes, I'm sure that's true. Is this reflective of the wider company? I doubt it.

Wayland offer big cuts off RRPs for a lot of games, and they may not have stock of 100% of what orders they take - this is normal retail practice and as with anything, "your mileage may vary". I placed an order with Wayland a week or so ago and it was fulfilled very promptly with no issue - it was just for paints, and I'm sure they've dozens of them in stock. If it was a pre-order for "the next big exciting thing in gaming", and my order was beyond their initial stocking order fulfilment, I may have had a longer wait. I'm not going to judge them on the past experiences of others on the internet.

But what about WWX?

Well, what about it? Before Wayland got hold of the game it was a pretty out-there experience, with no visible presence in the UK to speak of. Since they've had it, I've seen booths at two shows this year, which is 100% of the shows I've attended - not a bad hit rate so far. If they do the same with Firestorm, that's great news for expanding the fanbase.

Even better, I listened to episode 219 of The D6 Generation today whilst driving to and from an appointment for work. Stuart Mackaness, general Manager at Wayland/Warcradle, was the third chair, and he seems to be a very balanced and reasonable guy. Even better, he certainly seems to know how to run a game both commercially and mechanically. His rationale behind some of the (self-admittedly brutal) changes in WWX was sound, and made decisively - it was a definitive direction and deliberate change. That's great news if its applied to the Spartan franchises.

So I'm hopeful for the future of our beloved Spartan Games IPs - even if the future does not involve myself, TheoryMachine and departs from prior direction somewhat, I think now at least we can have hope that changes are being made for rational and commercial reasons, rather than on the whim of a single person. That makes a HUGE difference, and I'm looking forward to what happens next.

Bring it on!!!

Wild West Exodus 2-player set unboxing

So back in September, after hearing good things several times on Jaded Gamercast about Wild West Exodus, I found myself in the possession of some excess funds (from selling a bunch of 40k stuff) which I decided to grab the 2-player starter set of WWE. Unfortunately it turned out there was some problem and it never arrived, as regular readers/listeners will know we moved and then, out of the blue, it arrived whilst Oscar and I were at Reading Warfare.

So, here's the box - the two-player set is using the age-old outlaws and lawmen matchup that I'm sure many of us played as kids;

The front of the box has some nice comic-style artwork whilst the rear of the box sports the contents;

Now this set cost £64, and you get 28 figures, so on models alone the set works out at around £2.30 each, which isn't bad. Moving onto the contents, the box is end-opening and contains the rulebook, construction guides for the models, stat cards and a bubble-wrap pack which has the templates and tokens in;

Looking into the bubble wrap more closely....

Here you can see three clear plastic templates, four silver and bronze coloured 10-sided dice and a sprue with the tokens in gold-bronze plastic. The templates are pretty thick and sturdy, seems like they'll last a long time and they have a real quality feel to them.

Now onto the minis - you get three main sprues plus two small ones (each with a single special support character)

Having a closer look here, these are very nicely sculpted and cast figures, and I can see why JG were keen on them.

Now I know pretty much nothing more about the game, so it will have to wait until a future post to talk in any way about that, but my original impression is pretty positive. Next I'll be building the minis and coming back to this when that's done...watch this space!